Art Quilt Tahoe 2006    

Draw, Write, Paint, and Crazy-Grid! Quilts that have a lot to say

Instructor: Susan Shie

Supplies participants should bring.

SEWING MACHINE:

Yes. Make sure machine is running well, that you know how to use and maintain it, and that it has its tools and oil with it. Bring some sewing machine threads you like for quilting and a pack of needlles you like for simple quilting. I’m sure you can buy these at the verndor mall, too.

If you want to bring a machine into class for less days, make it the last two. Mostly we’ll be painting, but you will sew, and it’s nice if you have your own machine, so you can just grab it and sew up a piece fast!

Fabric:

--Kona cotton, white, PFD (prepared for dyeing): 4 yards or more for painting. Good to wash this fabric before use, to soften it more, even though it’s PFD. But this is not necessary.

--Muslin, unbleached: 3 yards or more for absorbant drop cloth under painting and for paint rags. A couple of plain colored old flat sheets would work for this, too.

--Backing fabric: three or four one yard pieces to choose from, to sandwich and quickly quilt a painting in the last part of the class. I love mottled hand dyed fabrics, but pick what you like and then see what goes with your painting. Or buy it at the vendor mall when the painting’s in your hand. Backing fabric must be woven cotton, and about 8” larger than the painting in both length and width, to allow for the self border I use in my work.

BATTING: Bring enough batting to quilt one of your paintings, or even two of them. To be really safe, you can bring a crib quilt size, so you don’t run short. Medium thickness of any batt will do, but I prefer Polyfil,Traditional myself.

PAINTS: Bring Jacquard Textile Colors (a very good transparent fabric paint, found at Dharma Trading Co. online) or other good, transparent fabric paints. They are all interchangeable. I suggest bringing 8 oz bottles of paint, including yellow, goldenrod, orange, true red, apple green, emerald green, sky blue, and violet. Also colorless extender, which is used to lighten colors. You can choose to bring smaller bottles of other colors and black, or to vary the colors for the 8 oz bottles. Order the fabric paints well before class, as they are often not all in stock when you order from Dharma. Put your name on all your bottles, at least with tape. If you’re flying, wrap the bottle lid edges with tape, to keep them from leaking, and put them into Ziploc bags.

BRUSHES : I use the long “brites” – flat tipped, stiff boar bristle brushes used mostly for painting with oils and acrylics. The cheap ones are as good as the expensive ones, I think. They all wear down fairly fast, but will get you through this class just fine. I use tiny widths to about 1/2 “ width. Bring an assortment of four brushes or so. I never use the round tipped brushes.

I also like the very small brushes sold for fabric painting, the ones with stiff white nylon bristles. You can get some nice small, flat ones, to do fine detail work on your painting.

You’re welcomed to email or call me about what to get. Any good transparent fabric paints will work fine, but they cannot be opaque paints. And brushes must be very stiff, or they just drag on the fabric.

HAND SEWING STUFF: You don’t have to bring any hand sewing supplies, but if you want to have something to sit around after hours and just sew on, and also for when the paint is drying, hand work is great! Keeps you sane and honest, too!

So if you think you will want to do a little hand work, ala how I work by hand, bring some embroidery needles and some perle cotton, size 5. I don’t use much #8, the tinier perle, but you might want to try it. Or bring whatever you want to bring. You can get amazing hand dyed variegated #5 perle cotton by Laura Wasilowski at http://www.artfabrik.com and I prefer the light to medium tones, and I stay away from dark tones and variegations that swing from dark to light. I use my hand sewing as background around my black lines of paint, so I don’t want my stitches to hide my writing or make it hard to read. Think light colors that will blend in with the paint background colors.

MARKERS: Buy 10 new Rub-a Dub Laundry Markers by Sharpie in black, fine point (that’s all they come in.) They are notoriously hard to find in stores, so google “Rub-a-Dub laundry markers” and check enough sites to find a good price. Bring only 5 Rub-a-Dubs if you know you only want to do a little marker work and really want to pounce on that airpen! Find these online, or at office supply stores. (Figure two Rub-a-Dubs for each painting, as you need for the lines to stay very crisp and rich.) Bring two new Sharpie black ultra fine line markers , too, for very fine detail work. Must all be new markers. I don’t think you’ll be able to find Rub-a-Dubs at the vendor mall, so be sure to bring enough.

PINS in a pincushion, sharp SCISSORS.

Optional: A package of middle sized (1” or so) safety pins for quilt basting.

Actually I think almost everything you will need for this 4 day class can be purchased at the on-site vendor mall, if you like.

Supplies you will have on hand I will have some respirators for heatsetting the paintings. If you are too claustrophobic to wear a respirator, you don’t have to do heat setting. Some of us will volunteer to do it. I will provide all the airpen equipment.

Class fee:$5 – 50, depending on airpen use and paints you may end up using of mine. Will include any handouts I provide. Mainly I’ll charge for use of my airpens and the paint we run through them. So your fee will depend on if and how much you use airpen, though you should expect to do at least some writing and drawing with markers, due to time constraints, even if you want to only do airpen. Just isn’t possible in a big class. And remember you don’t have to use airpen at all. I’ll bring at least two airpens and black Jacquard paint for them. You’ll be bringing your own paints for brushing in the colors.

BROCHURE DESCRIPTION:

Draw, write, and paint whole cloth paintings with markers, fabric paint and brushes, and optional airpen. Emphasis here is on the message and imagery, not the sewing, and on staying in an intuitive, non-analytical mindset, letting the ideas and images flow onto the cloth. As a group we’ll pick a theme for each day’s paintings, such as Kitchen Ritual, My Family, etc. You can rebel and paint your own theme any time. Pick one or two paintings to machine quilt in my Crazy-Grid style in class.

Hi, Students. 

Since our group is now an Independent Study, rather than a regular class, and is a much smaller group, I've made these changes in the supplies for you:

I will bring all the paints, including both all the colored paints for brushing in, and the airpen black paints.  In the original supply list, I was only bringing the airpen paint. I'll also bring all the brushes. So you should still bring the other things listed for my class, including the Rub-a-Dub laundry markers, which you'll find by googling online.  Unless you're planning to do a lot of airpen work, you should still aim at having 10 of these.

I'm also using Painters paint markers now, in black.  I didn't have these on the supply list, which I made up over a year ago, but they're really nice, because their line is heavier than the Rub-a-Dub's.  They are sold as by Speedball or Elmer's.  Both brands are the same exact markers.  They have acrylic paint in them and none of the smelly xylene gas.  But xylene keeps paint fresh. You can get these online, too, but Wal-Mart has them at a really good price, back in the art supplies.

I buy Painters in black, in both fine and medium tips.  If you only buy one size, get Fine, since we're working on smallish paintings.  This marker is not for the writing, but for outlines.  Then I use the Rub-a-Dub for writing, after we paint in colors, and also the Sharpie Ultra-fine black marker, for when you have to write really small.  Of course, I prefer the airpen for writing, but I'm really getting into using the Painters for outlines. If you buy Painters paint markers, get about 4-6 of them.  And remember to bring the little ziploc bags!

Other than these changes, please bring all supplies, but if you don't want to have to bring so much stuff, you can get white Kona cotton to paint on, unbleached muslin for blotter under the paintings, batting, beautiful backing fabrics, and machine threads from the vendor, Quilter's Haven at Truckee. In my own work, I'm switching from using Polyfil Traditional batt, to Warm and White bleached cotton batt.  I've switched because now I'm barely hand sewing.  The Warm and White works very well with machine quilting, and is obviously a better choice environmentally.  I was very surprised at how strong it is.  But you can use any batt you want, and bring it, if you really love a particular brand. Patty Nogle, the vendor of Quilter's Haven at Truckee, will bring some Warm and White that you can purchase and try.

I think that's it for now.  Please email me with any questions about our class.  I'd also love to hear from you, with your web site link, so I can go see what you're up to!

I'm really looking forward to AQT!  It's right around the corner!  I hope you have time to look over my website before the class, especially the 2005 and 2006 galleries, so you can see what I've been up to.

Thanks, Susan, susan@turtlemoon.com, 330-345-5778-h, 330-317-2167-c.http://www.turtlemoon.com 330-317-2167-c
2612 Armstrong Dr
Wooster, Ohio 44691-1806
email: susan@turtlemoon.com

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